Where is Home?
by Eruanna Undomiel
Summary: Co-authored with Eliane Vivian. When two obsessed Newsies fans go back in time, and meet their favorite newsies, it's a dream come true. But will they be able to choose where their home really is? Not your average time-travel fic! ON BREAK!
1. Day One

**Melody: I don't own Newsies. I only own Melody.**

**Piper: I don't own newsies. Just Piper. Duh.**

**Day One**

**Melody's POV (Point of View)**

_Beep! Beep! Beep! _ I hit the stop button on my timer. I now had to leave the amazing fan-fic world and enter reality. I closed down the Internet and logged out of the computer. I spun my chair to face outward and wondered about what to do next. I glanced at my watch. Two o'clock. I still had about two hours before I needed to go finish my chores. I brushed a piece of my short, blond hair out of my face and behind my ear. I glanced out the window. My family and I had just moved to a town just out of Philadelphia. I had just gotten my Driver's License and on a normal day I would go sightsee. But it just _had_ to rain today. I finally decided upon a course of action. I would go watch Newsies until it was time to get back to work.

I got out of my chair and a bolt of lightning flashed through the sky, quickly followed by a boom of thunder. I walked down three steps, across a landing, and up three more steps. I opened the door to my room and groped around for my lamp. My room was as dark as a cave since my blinds were shut. Now that I had some light, I walked over to get the DVD. I paused to look at my Newsies poster and then opened the closet door. I opened the third drawer from the top in a white roll-along cart and pulled out my movie.

I turned on another lamp and looked in the mirror. I was pretty plain, in my opinion. My hair went to my collarbone and my grey-blue eyes looked back at me in the mirror. I straightened my pink and white shirt and walked over to my bed. I at down on my floral, quilt bedspread leaned over the side nearest my window and grabbed the portable DVD player we kept down there. I didn't have a TV in my room, but I occasionally watched movies in my room using a portable DVD player in the afternoon. I popped the movie in as thunder banged across the sky again. I skipped through the previews, hit play, and let Racetrack's voice wrap around me. I watched eagerly as "Carrying the Banner" started, but just as Kid Blink sang, "I smell money," a boom of thunder rattled the house and we lost power. My room was now pitch-black and I could no longer watch newsies. I didn't even get to see David, my favorite.

I flopped back on my bed, unconsciously still holding the movie cast. I closed my eyes in exasperation. I tried to relax, but my eyes shot open a second after I closed them, because I felt something wet on my nose. I found something looking up at the dark sky. Dark sky? How on earth did I get outside? I looked to the left and right. Two large, brick buildings were flanking me in. I was in an alley. I sat up slowly.

"I'm not in Kansas any more," I muttered to myself, and tried to find a dry place to stay until it stopped raining.

**Piper's POV**  

I had fallen asleep last night really late, and I expected to wake up at noon, probably. But surprisingly, I woke up at nine. Still in my SpongeBob pajamas, I trudged to the bathroom to brush my teeth and my hair.  

_God, I'm a mess_, I thought. I brushed through my brown hair and its caramel salon highlights. I washed my face, still unsatisfied with the way my acne medicine was helping. I looked myself over in my body mirror one more time; semi-messy hair, an old wrinkled green Camp Judaea shirt, and yellow SpongeBob banana split pajama pants with a pink waistband. I sighed, thinking of this look as my favorite nightmare look. When I got back to my room, I realized that there would be absolutely nothing on television, so I popped in my Newsies DVD like I did every day. I sat there watching it, skipping the Pulitzer scenes and making my way to the dance numbers. I was watching the King of New York scene when it suddenly started storming and the electricity went out. I went outside just to see how bad it was.  

Except for the moment I stepped onto my porch, lightning struck two inches away from my foot and I was blown by the impact back into my house. My back hit a pile of crates. I didn't remember ever putting them there. But when I saw what was around me, I knew I wasn't in my Texas house anymore. I was in an alley. You know, like one of those alleys from Newsies, just more dark and creepy. The sky was gray, almost black, and when I looked out the end to see if there was anyone on the streets, I saw people hurrying to get inside and holding their hats on. The only people not rushing to get inside were teenage boys, probably around my age of seventeen, dressed in clothes that newsies would wear. Heck, they were kind of cute. But also very, very familiar.  

Someone tapped me on the shoulder from behind and I turned around fast. I saw a girl with short blonde hair, probably only a year younger than me. "Hi. I'm Melody," she said.   "Hi, Melody, I'm Piper." I looked her over. She wasn't from this time either. She was wearing a pink and white shirt and blue jeans. "I'm just going to come out ask you… how did you get here?" 

"It was storming, and the electricity went out. I lay down on my bed and I closed my eyes and when I opened them I was here. And you?" 

"It was storming and I went outside and my porch was struck by lightning. That's how I got here. Say, do those boys over there look familiar?" I pointed to what looked like newsboys.  

Melody gave me an "are you crazy" look. "Well, duh, don't you know? That's Kid Blink and David Jacobs. Two TOTALLY awesome newsies!" 

I slapped my forehead. Of course! How could I forget? Kid Blink was my favorite newsie of all time! "Right, you know I totally forgot! And I was just watching Newsies. Blink's my favorite." 

"David's my favorite," she said. "Say, I know this sounds kind of stalker-ish, but what do you say we follow them? Just to see if they're really like who they are in the movie?" 

"You're right, that does sound stalker-ish. But, heck, they're newsies! No one said it was a crime to 'study' your heroes." 

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's go!" As she said that, we walked quickly out into the rain towards the handsome boys.

**Melody's POV**

Piper and I followed Blink and David at a small distance, talking together. I liked Piper right off the bat. She was as obsessed with Newsies as I was, which was always good. The rain was cold at first, but as we walked longer, we got used to it. I had no idea where we were other than New York, probably Manhattan. I'd never been to the Big Apple so I was completely lost. Piper and I were relying completely on the two boys in front of us.

Of course, you can only follow someone for so long before you get caught. We didn't notice the boys had stopped until we just about walked into them. We took a couple of steps backward and looked up. The boys were around six foot and I was about 5'3 and Piper was only a little taller. The two of them were looking us over and Piper and I shot a glance that said, _Uh,oh. This can't be good_. Sure enough.

"Who are you and why are you dressed like that?" It was Mouth. I could have passed out. I pulled myself together and looked at Piper. She nodded for me to go ahead. Great, now I got to tell them we were from the future. I had an honest streak the size of New York State. She might regret this.

"I'll tell you if you guys promise not to call the men in white on us."

David and Blink grinned. "Okay, deal," Blink said.

"My name is Melody and that's Piper." I pointed to her. "We are from the year 2009. It started storming and we got here when the electricity went out.

David and Blink looked at each other. "I believe you," David said.

I did a double take. "Really?"

"Yeah, your..ah.. clothes made your case." I felt my face get hot. "I just have one more question. Why were the two of you following us?"  
Ouch, How could I not tell a lit, without humiliating myself? "We were looking for a place to stay. We though you might know somewhere."

"Yeah, we know." Blink butted into the conversation. "It's only 5 cents a night AND we have proper clothes for you tow. Come on. No one else'll be there, probably, so your secret'll only be between the four of us."  
"Thanks," Piper said.

I noticed Blink giving Piper the once-over. I grinned.

"Okay, let's go," he said. We headed off into the rain.

**Piper's POV**  

 "So we know when you guys are from, but where are you from?" David asked. 

"I'm from Texas. I wasn't born there, but my dad's work made us move. I've lived there for about year now. Mel's from Philly. Right?" I looked at Melody. 

"Near there, yes. A town right outside of it," Melody clarified. I shot her a side-glance. She looked nervous… I'd ask her what was wrong later if she kept this up. 

I looked at Blink. He was looking me over (again) and he had a "you're crazy" expression on his face. "You gotta problem with my clothes?" I asked smugly. "Because I happen to like them." 

"No, they're just a little weird. Especially the pants," he said. 

"Yeah, those are a little strange. What's the cheese with eyes and clothes?" David asked. 

"Oh, my god. That's not cheese; it's a talking sea sponge on a television show. His name is SpongeBob Squarepants." 

"What's tele-whatever?" 

"It's like watching one of Medda's shows from your home in a small format. And you can watch it whenever you want. A little box that shows entertainment," Melody explained. 

"Wait… if you're from the future… how do you know who Medda is?" David asked. He cocked his head to the side and I saw Mel crack a little smile. 

"You'd be surprised what we know about all of you, including Pulitzer and Medda and Denton and everyone else who was part of the strike," Melody continued. "We know about the strike and we know about all of the newsies and their names and birthdays and stuff. But we're not stalkers. Like we said, we're from the future." 

"Well if you know so much about the newsies, then why don't you name them off?" 

I started talking like an automaton, knowing all of the newsies by heart now that I had been obsessed for months. "Jack, David, Les, Racetrack, Mush, Kid Blink, Skittery, Specs, Pie Eater, Bumlets, Dutchy, Snoddy, Jake, Itey, Snitch, Snipeshooter, Boots, and Spot Conlon, except for he's the leader of the Brooklyn newsies. Did I get everyone?" 

Kid Blink, David, and even Melody stared at me as if I were a lunatic. "What? So I know these things by heart. Big deal." 

"Yeah… right…" Melody nudged me in the ribs. With her eyes, she motioned to Kid Blink, who had gone from his hands being in his pocket to his arm being around my waist without my even noticing. We held in our laughs and only let a small giggle escape. 

"What's funny?" David asked. 

"Inside joke," I laughed. And it was… sort of. Not that we'd be able to hold it in for long… ha.

**Melody's POV**

Blink and David got us to (surprise, surprise) the Lodging House quickly. It had stopped raining at the moment, but they sky threatened to let loose. We walked in quickly.

"Kloppman!!" Blink hollered. I winced and so did Piper. He had strong lungs.

And old man with gray hair can out from a back room. Piper and I instantly recognized him as said Kloppman. "How can I help you, Blink? Who are the girls?"  
"They're friends of me and Mouth." I saw David wince. I smiled softly. "They need a place to stay and I figured they could stay in the girl's level."  
I shared a glance with Piper. A girl's level was defiantly new. "Yeah, that'll be fine," Kloppman said.

Piper stepped over to him. "Thank you, sir. How much do we owe you"  
"First night's free."

I heaved a sigh of relief. I didn't have a thing on me, so I was grateful. I didn't think Piper and any money, either, so a free night was eagerly accepted.

"Come with me, girls." Blink showed us to the girl's level, which was pretty much just an attic. It was a little dark, but it was warm and that was good.

"We had three girls up here about a month ago. Two of them were your sizes. They left some clothes that should fit you two. The clothes and some blankets are in the chest. Come on down when your done."  
"Thanks," I said.

"Yeah," Piper agreed. "Hey, could one of you tell us the date, year, and time?"  
"Friday, July 20th, 1900," David replied. He pulled out a watch. "It's about 5 o'clock."  
"Thanks," Piper said. "We'll be down in a minute."  
The boys left and Piper and I headed for the chest, giggling all the way.

"This is so cool," I said, kneeling by the chest. "They are exactly the same. Except Blink's really loud."  
"Yeah, but I don't really care. I like him." Piper opened up the chest.

I smiled and pulled out an outfit, holding it up to me to see if it would fit. "And, apparently, he likes you too!"  
She blushed and grabbed a brown skirt and white shirt, and began changing. "By the way, why were you so nervous on the way over here?"  
I adjusted my black skirt and started to look for the blankets. "It's David."  
"You like him, don't you?" Her voice was muffled as she pulled her shirt over her head.

"Yeah, but you have to understand. The only males that I'm ever around are my dad and my 6-year-old brother. I don't know how to act." I pulled out six blankets and a couple of pillows.

"So," She grabbed three blankets and a pillow and started making a makeshift bed. "You've been doing just fine. I'm kind of surprised, he's the reason you're nervous. You are always so put together when you talk to him."  
I stacked two blankets on top of each other, put a pillow on one end, and put the other blanket on top. I sat on my new bed. "Public Speaking. I may not look nervous, but trust me, I'm quaking." I walked back over to the chest.

"Here's my advice: be yourself. I don't know how he couldn't like you."  
I smiled at her. "Thanks, Piper." I sat a new found treasure on my bed.

"No problem. Now let's head downstairs before they think we've died."  
"M'kay." Before I followed her, I sent up a silent prayer of thanks and touched the Bible that rested on my bed.

**Piper's POV**  

"These clothes are so dorky! I can't believe I agreed to wear them. I liked my pajamas," I told Melody as we walked down the stairs.  

"You get what you get, and you don't have a fit. That's what I always say," she responded. "Say, do you have any food? I haven't eaten all day…" 

"No, but I have a feeling we're being taken out to dinner." My hunch came from David and Blink counting up their money from their day's work.

"Heya, boys, whatchya doing?" "

Counting up our money. It's a little expensive to take four out to dinner," David said.  

"It's like two cents for roast beef. In 2009 two cents would get you absolutely nothing. A roast beef sandwich costs about five to six dollars, depending on where you get it from," I said (remembering in the movie how on the menu it said roast beef was two cents).  

"I don't know a single person who could afford that, and I'm the one with a family," he responded.  

"Five bucks is like nothing in 2009," Melody said.  

"Well," Blink said, getting back on track, "It looks like we have just enough to feed us all and buy tomorrow's papes. Shall we go?" 

"Did you seriously just say shall?" I asked (with my prima donna attitude).  

"Uh…" 

"Ha, just forget it," I said. "Let's go. You'll have to lead the way, boys. We're new around here, remember." I had attitude and trust me, I flaunted it.  

"Whatever you say," Blink answered, nonchalantly slipping his arm around my waist and pulling me close to him. I looked behind me; I knew David was not nearly as smooth with girls as Blink (trust me, I know these things), so he just held out his arm and Melody took it. She kept her eyes forward and he did the same. They soooo liked each other. And yes, that is my teenage intuition speaking here.

**Melody's POV**

Okay, being this close to David could not be healthy. My heart was racing and my face had to be beet-red. I tried to focus on not tripping. This skirt was extremely long, floor-length. Perfect for tripping on.

"Blink seems to have a new girl," David commented.

I chuckled a bit. I still thought it was cute and somewhat funny that Piper and her crush had hit it off so well. "Yep. I'm happy for Piper. She really likes him."  
"She better be able to withstand extreme teasing, because she and Blink are really going to get it from the rest of the guys."  
"I don't know if she can. I just met her today."  
"Really?" David cocked his head again. I had to bite back a smile. "It looks like you two have been best friends since you were two."

"Nope. But she and I have a lot in common."

There was silence for a while. I tried to break it again. "So, where's Les?"  
"He's at home with a small cold. He should be selling again tomorrow."  
Our conversation was cut short as we entered Tibby's. We all had a lot of fun. Piper and I quizzed them on their time and they quizzed us on ours. That didn't last to long. After asking three questions, Blink looked completely lost and David seemed to barely understand. All in all though, we had dun and got to know each other a lot better.

When we arrived at the Lodging House, Piper and I braced ourselves. There was silence for a minute and then a couple of whistles. Jack called out first. "Hey, Blink, Mouth? Who are the girls?"

I was getting kind of ticked that people asked about us Piper and me without asking us. I decided to speak up. "I'm Melody and that's Piper."  
"They're our newest newsies," Blink clarified.

Jack nodded. "I'm Jack Kelly or Cowboy."

Piper smirked. "We know."

He looked a little surprised. "Well, let me introduce you to the rest of the fellas. This is…"

"We know them too."

A boy with dark, curly hair looked up from a card game. "Well, then, who am I?"  
"Itey." Itey's eye's widened.

A boy with a bowler hat spoke up. "Who am I?"  
"Jake," I responded.

Piper and I spent the next five minutes identifying all of the newsies. Afterwards, we watched the boys play poker and talked with Blink and David. At about 7:30, David said he needed to head back home. I may have just been a trick of the light, but it seemed like he didn't want to leave. Piper and Blink were busy talking so I got my Bible and read for a while. At about 10 o'clock, Kloppman announced for about the tenth time, that is was lights out. Piper and I headed upstairs, changed into some nightgowns we found and promptly crashed.


	2. Day Two

**Melody: Hey everyone!!! It's me. I thought I would write the disclaimer for this chapter. I'm glad that quite a few people enjoy this. I really like it!!!! So anyway, Piper and I don't own Newsies. Life can be so cruel. But I own Melody, and Piper owns Piper. I also don't own the little song in here. I am in the play mentioned, so I don't own the song. I don't know who wrote it. I don't own The Hobbit either. Don't sue me or Piper. On with the show!!!**

**Day 2  **

**Piper's POV**

 You know, I had honestly expected to wake up in my bed at home. But when I realized how uncomfortable I was, and that it wasn't quite light out, I remembered where I was. "Oh my gooooodddddddd!" I groaned. 

"What's wrong?" Melody asked from below. I leaned over to see her reading her bible.  

"I'm in a dress. No, wait. I guess that's okay. The fact that I'm awake at whatever o'clock in the morning bothers me. I should be asleep past noon! What time is anyway?" I asked. 

"Six-thirty. I suggest that we get up now. The boys were up half an hour ago. Jack came in here and woke me up." 

"You don't sound too happy about it." 

"I was tired, like you are now. Blink came in to see if you were up yet." 

"Nice to know someone cares." 

Melody flipped a page in her bible, bookmarked it and closed it. "I hope you can withstand teasing, because they've already started to tease Blink about the two of you. He's very good about it, but I think he'd be less tempted to hurt them if you showed him that it didn't bother you." 

I laughed. "Girl, you have no idea. I've been teased since third grade. I just ignore everybody. And if they go too far with their teasing I'll kick them. Simple as that, you know." I jumped down from the bunk and walked over to the clothes; I dreaded the idea of wearing a dress. Thankfully, I didn't have to; I found a set of boy's clothes and a gray knit cap. "You ready to go?" 

"Sure," she said. "Let's go downstairs." 

Together we walked down stairs, me in boy's clothes and her in a dress. Three of the boys were downstairs; Kid Blink, Skittery, and Mush. David walked in just as we arrived downstairs. 

"Hey boys," I said. I guess my choice of clothing was abnormal, for I raised a few eyebrows. "What? I can't be comfortable?" The boys held up their hands in a "no, no, it's fine" way. "That's what I thought, Say, where's everyone else?" 

"Still getting ready. They're idiots sometimes," Skittery said. 

Melody and I looked at each other. "We know," we said simultaneously.  

"If you two are ready to go then we'll leave," David said.

Melody and I shrugged. Before they could catch us, we ran out the door.

**Melody's POV**

I shot a glance over my shoulder. The boys were tearing after us, but Skittery and Mush were slower. They were laughing too hard to run. I turned my head around as I saw David catching up to me. Piper was ahead of me by a lot. She was fast… and I was in a dress.

I stopped looking where I was going and tripped over something in the road. "Oof!" I sat there for a minute, checking to make sure I was all in one piece.

"Melody!"  
I turned to the voice, and saw David picking up speed. He came and knelt next to me. "Are you alright?" Concern laced his voice.

"Yep. As far as I can tell."

"You're sure?"  
"Yes. Thanks."

He held out his hand to help me up and I gladly took it. I brushed myself off and looked over to Piper. Blink had caught up to her and was tickling her, waiting for her to beg for mercy.

David, Mush, Skittery, and I walked up to them. "Come in, Piper. We got papes to sell and all that, so we need to get going."

We arrived at the Distribution Center about 10 minutes later. "Hey, Blink! Took you and your girlfriend long enough!" Everyone in line snickered at Racetrack's comment.

Blink clenched his fists. "Relax, Blink." Piper said. "It's fine. I don't mind." Blink seemed to take her advice and calmed down.

The six of us got in line and proceeded to wait. David seemed to be looking for something as we moved along. "Jack," he called after a couple of minutes. "Where's Les?" Cowboy gestured to a group of boys trying to climb the Distribution Gates.

By this time, David, Blink, Piper, and me were next in line. Skittery was having a bit of fun teasing Weasel. I didn't know he still worked here. Piper and I would puzzle it out later.

I put my head back and closed my eyes. "Tired, Mel?" Piper teased. I gave a small smile and righted myself. Blink looked at me like I was crazy.

"Were you really sleeping?"  
Piper shook her head. "Blink, she was just showing that she was tired."  
I jumped in. "Where we're from **normal**," I emphasized that last word. "Don't get up a six am."  
He and David just shook their heads and for the papers. There were 100 in between me and David, a daunting task to me, and 75 between Piper and Blink. We walked up to Jack and Les.

"Cowboy, will you sell with Les today? Blink and I are going to help the new girls."  
He nodded, a surprised look on his face, and walked off, towing Les.

"Alright, so the first thing you got to learn is…" David began.

"Headlines don't sell papes, newsies sell papes." I finished.

Blink looked a little surprised. "Rule two is…"  
"It ain't lying. Just improving the truth a little."  
David and Blink looked at us like we were crazy. Piper shrugged. "We just know these things. Future, remember?"

The boys sighed and I grinned. "I'm going to give you a new rule." Everyone looked at me. "Melody's first rule. I refuse to lie to sell my papers. Or improve the truth." I added that last one before Blink could open his mouth.

"Look, I don't like it either, Melody. But, you can't do it any other way." David tried to calm me down.

"I wrote newspaper articles for school one year. There is more to a newspaper than the headline. The most important stuff is in the article itself. Hand me a paper, David. I'll show you." I glanced at the front-page headline. "**Mayor Suffers Sleepless Nights." **Ouch. That whole article stunk. "Okay, Plan B. This article stinks. That's just a figure speech, boys. I'll use it though and** not **make anything up."

I turned to the street. I took a deep breath and started. "Extra! Extra! Mayor becomes and insomniac! Learn the signs to protect yourself!" Between the four of us, we sold about 25 papers. I turned back Piper and the boys. "I love big words." I smiled.

**Piper's POV  **

"Me too," I said to Melody, as a reply to her comment of being partial to big words. "I love them because no one ever knows what you're saying!" 

"Yes! That's exactly what I was thinking! And they make you feel smart!" Melody said.  

"Yeah, but we're some of the people who don't know what words like that means. Like insum, nom, snom, insom… what was the word again?" Blink asked. The look on his face was so cute and perplexed, I almost squealed in satisfaction.  

"Insomniatic. It means you have trouble falling asleep and then staying asleep. It's like a disease. Like in West Side Story, Baby John says 'I got insomnia, Doc, too many worries'," I explained.  

"I don't remember that… then again I don't remember much from that movie. I haven't seen it in a long time and I wasn't very interested at the time. I only really remember it being good," Melody observed.  

David and Blink looked at us funny. "What's a movie?" David asked.  

"It's like a play, or a skit. Except you can watch it whenever you want in your house on a magic box thing called a TV, short for television." 

"Okay then…" David probably thought I was insane. Oh, fiddlesticks. What does it matter, anyway? Different strokes for different folks, as my mom would say.  

"Say, you girls wanna go to Tibby's? I'm gettin' kinda hungry," Blink offered.  

"Sure," Melody and I said simultaneously. With that, we walked off to the famed restaurant of the Newsies.

**Melody's POV**

Piper and I were really going to have to work out this whole say things together thing. It was kind of creeping me out, but in a good way. I started humming under my breath as we walked to the restaurant.

"That's a nice tune. Does it have words?" I was a little surprised once David started talking.

"Yes."

"What are they?"  
I sighed. I did NOT sing well accapella and I did not want to do it now. However, I had three people looking at me so there was no escape. I took a deep breath. "Naur vi eyren/ lanc i dalaf. Mastack vi geven/ Nostack vi wilith. Mab le i nagor/ Bad gurth vinglad firiel. Dorstack vi mar han/ Dagrastack go hain."

I was rewarded with blank looks. "It's Elvish. I don't know what it means. But the song is war song, so to speak. In my time, I am in a play and for one of the songs I have to sing in Elvish."

"That was pretty good," David said.

"Thank you. It's not to hard to learn."  
"What play is it?" Piper asked. We continued walking. We were a ways from Tibby's.

"The Hobbit, by Tolkien. It's a musical production, though. We get to do fight scenes and all sorts of cool stuff."  
"Sweet."

Our conversation continued as such until we reached Tibby's. It took us maybe 10 to 15 minutes. David and Blink had been silent after my little song and I could tell that they were still puzzling out the whole movie thing. We sat down and I rolled my eyes. "Guys. A 'movie' is just another word for a flicker." Their faces cleared and I sat back, satisfied.

"Except our flickers talk," Piper added. The boy's jaws dropped.

"What?" Blink exploded. David was silent, trying to figure out how that was possible.

"Flickers will talk in the future," I said slowly. "By the 1940's for sure. Maybe a little earlier."  
"How is that possible?" asked David. Confusion and wonder clouded his eyes.

Now Piper and I were puzzled and looked at each other. "I don't know," Piper said. "I never really thought about it."

My mouth went into a puzzled frown as I thought it through. I suddenly felt something in my mouth and ran my tongue over my teeth. "Yes!"

David and Blink looked at me like I was insane and Piper was a little confused too. "What is it?" she asked.

"My braces are going!" Her face cleared up, but the boy's still looked confused. "Guys, your faces are going to freeze that way. And it's just an expression." I looked at Piper. "All of my sarcastic humor will be gone at the end of the week, guaranteed."  
She nodded sympathetically. "I know."  
"What are braces?" Blink stumbled over the word. I was noticing that if Blink didn't understand something, he just asked. David preferred to puzzle it out. Men. I sighed and started to explain.

**Piper's POV  **

Once Melody finished explaining about braces (which took WAYYYY longer than I thought it would), I thought I was going to fall asleep until Blink accidentally kicked me in the back of my shin. "Wha−" The kick jolted me into full focus.   

"Sorry," Blink said.   

"No big, I needed that anyway. It's like a caramel Frappuccino from Starbucks. Wakes you up."  

"What's a star buck?" David asked.   

"She's talking about coffee. A Frappuccino has flavorings to make it sweet, but its still coffee, and it's cold with ice. Think of coffee flavored snow," Melody explained.   

I shook my head. Melody thought it was to clear my head, but I was really self-scolding her. She was WAY too smart for her own good (maybe bad, depending on the situation). I mean, I've been told I'm a genius, but this girl exceeded me by far. "So you guys know what we can do for the rest of the day? Because I am growing more bored every second." 

 "She's got a point," Melody agreed. "It's like when you're done with work, there's nothing to do."  

"Well… usually we just go and hang around with the other guys," David said. "We don't really know what girls like to do in their spare time." Melody and I exchanged humored looks. "Well," she began, "in the future, a lot of things that we do are co-ed."  

"Meaning both boys and girls participate," I added. "My favorite thing to do in my spare time is read. But I'm sure you would find that boring. Especially since half of the books that are any good were written after the year 2000. So I guess it's your job to find a way to entertain us."  

The boys exchanged a mischievous look. I could only imagine what they might think up.

**Melody's POV**

I was getting extremely nervous. You would be too, if you had two teenage boys deciding how you were going to spend the rest of your day. I shuddered mentally as some possibilities came up. Oh well. I was ready to have fun, to a degree. I wasn't going to jump into the Hudson, or anything like that.

"You're kidding me." I was standing at the Hudson River with Piper and the boys. Blink and David had just announced that we were going swimming. Granted, the Hudson wasn't nearly as polluted as it was in my time, but that doesn't mean it was crystal clear. "There is no way you are getting me in there."

Piper shrugged. "I'm going in. It's hot and that water looks really clear." She jumped in headfirst. Oh. It did look cool and I was sweltering, but I wasn't about to give in. We were near the bridge and I stood in the shade of it to cool off. The boys had been water, but Blink got out and came over to me.

"Come on, Mel. You need to get in. The water feels so good." I knew it would, but I had my back to the river so it wouldn't tempt me.

"Sorry, Blink. It's too dirty. And I know that sounds kind of prissy, but I am not a lake/river person."

"Come on…" I couldn't hear the rest of his plea. For as soon as I finished talking a pair of arms snuck behind me, picked me up, and threw me in.

I came up spluttering, and barely afloat. I was never swimming in a skirt. I heard everyone else laughing as I swam/waded to shore.

"Come on, Melody. Don't get out." Now David was on me.

"I'm not. The water feels too good. I'm just going to ignore the dirt."

"Then why are getting out?" Apparently I'm good at confusing David.

"Because, there is no way I can swim in a big, heavy, skirt. I'm taking it off." I had slipped on a pair of pants under my skirt earlier this morning. I was spending my day with two boys and I wasn't taking any chances.

Piper swam up to me as soon as I could move, laughing. "Come on." She took my hand and dragged me out deeper. She began to talk again, raising her voice so the boys could hear. "I'll race you all to Brooklyn!"

I laughed. I was glad I got to spend this trip with her. In some ways, we were identical, but she could also be my opposite, which was good. She could balance me out. "You're on." I dug my feet into the sand and pushed off.

As I glanced behind me (I could tell Piper was close) I could see Blink and David behind us, somewhat in awe that the two of us could swim. I laughed. Those two had a lot to learn about girls.

**Piper's POV**  

I really could not believe that Melody accepted my challenge. It was so good that I was originally from Florida and I had gone to the beach and was like an expert on swimming and water. I realized that Mel was right about the water being icky, since whenever I ducked under and opened my eyes I couldn't see a thing, but I was swimming with newsies. Can it really get much better than that?   

Surprisingly, Brooklyn didn't really feel that far away. Another thing that was surprising; how many boys were at the Brooklyn docks. Among them, I saw the infamous (hehe) Spot Conlon. He eyed me and Melody skeptically, but when he saw Blink and David his expression turned into a mischievous smirk. When Mel and I started to climb the ladder to get on the docks, Spot came down from his place of honor to ever so rudely greet us.   

"And who do I have the pleasure of meetin' today?" he said quite sarcastically, still smirking. Idiot.   

"I'm Piper," I said, matching his smirk with my own. "And this," I gestured to my friend climbing the ladder, "this is Melody. We're Blink and David's friends."  

"I see," he said, looking at them. "And I'm−" 

 "Spot Conlon," Melody finished. "We know all about you, Spot. We're from the future." Melody wasn't good at being genuinely rude, I noticed. I'd have to help her with that. Nor could she let the boys be gentlemen… although, I have to say these boys were less sexist than the ones back home. At least _these_ ones were _respectful_.   

"Oh, yeah, right, the future. Good one, Miss Melody." Well, some of them were respectful. There's an exception to every rule, after all.   

"They ain't lyin', Spot," Blink defended.   

"Really, Spot, they're not lying," David agreed.   

I've seen Newsies a million times, really, but I realized then how AWESOME Spot looked. I also realized that if he was anything like his movie character… well, I'd have to be careful what I was to say around the kid. "Really, Spot, Mel and I can tell you anything about you or any of the Manhattan boys. It's as simple as that. Unless this simple subject is too much for you to handle." 

I heard a few boys give low whistles at my challenge to the boy who some thought was the greatest Newsie ever. Haha. Dorks.   

"Nothing is too much for me to handle, Piper girl," he responded angrily.   

I just smiled and rung out my wet hair like nobody's business. "So, Brooklyn boy, what do you have to do to have some fun around here?"   

"Go back to Manhattan," a boy far behind Spot yelled to me.   

I laughed and rolled my eyes. "Make me."  

Blink and David cut in to try and keep me from being hit by the boy I was back-talking (which was bound to happen eventually). So, we spent the rest of the afternoon on the edge with Spot, arguing and discussing random things. He even tried testing us to see if we really knew as much as we said we did. At about six we headed home (we walked, not swam). I have to say. It was the perfect ending to a strangely imperfect day.

**Please read and review!!!!**

**Melody and Piper**


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